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Hospitals to Test Music-Based mHealth Platform for Stroke Treatment

Five rehab hospitals across the country will soon be testing a digital therapeutic platform that combines music with AI and mHealth sensors to help stroke survivors with walking problems.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- Five rehabilitation hospitals will be testing a telehealth platform for stroke treatment that integrates music with AI and mHealth sensors for guided therapy.

The hospitals will be testing a digital therapeutic device developed by Portland, ME-based MedRhythms, which is seeking US Food and Drug Administration approval for the service. The program will study the mHealth device’s impact on walking among a group of patients who have walking impairments as a result of a stroke.

“Right now, the MedRhythms digital therapeutic technology is a novel treatment for a subset of individuals that have few, if any, effective treatment options,” David Putrino, director of the Abilities Research Center (ARC) for the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Mount Sinai Health System, said in a press release. “The mission of the ARC is to identify and validate novel technologies that have the potential to significantly enhance the rehabilitation of people who are recovering from brain injuries and neurological conditions, including chronic stroke.”

Putrino will lead the research project at New York-based Mount Sinai. Also participating in the study are the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, the Kessler Foundation in New Jersey and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and the Boston University Neuromotor Recovery Laboratory, both in Boston.

“The digital therapeutics industry has the potential to transform rehabilitation and disrupt healthcare, and it is imperative for companies in this space to run full-scale, multisite RCTs like MedRhythms is doing," Putrino added.

MedRhythms began as a digital therapy program launched out of Spaulding Rehab, part of the Partners HealthCare network, and has been building a portfolio of digital therapeutic treatments for treatment of neurological injury and disease, including Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. The company is also looking to apply the treatment to senior care and fall prevention programs.

The company’s first and signature product is MedRhythms Stride, a digital health platform for stroke rehabilitation that focuses on Rhythmic Auditory Simulation (RAS). mHealth sensors attached to a patient’s feet gather gait parameters, which are then analyzed by a smartphone app that pairs the patient’s gait with music.

“Rhythm is the main driver of the interventions we have,” Owen McCarthy, the company’s president and founder, told mHealthIntelligence in a 2018 interview. “And it’s the type of thing we’re going to see more and more of in healthcare.”

This past June, the company announced a partnership with Health Catalyst’s new life sciences business to make its platform available to payers and providers looking for new ways to enhance stroke rehabilitation programs.

“This partnership comes at a crucial time in the digital therapeutics industry,” Carlos Rodarte, senior vice president of strategy and business development for the life sciences at Health Catalyst, said in a press release. “Several companies in this field have completed or are completing important trials demonstrating the significant clinical impact of true, validated and regulated digital therapeutics, paving the way for an entire new industry in digital health which has disruptive potential globally to deliver rapid, efficient therapies for patients with unmet needs.”

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